Martin

He would have been 95 on Monday.
He would have stirred us more, pressed us more.
And we still would have resisted.
Or he might have been killed another day.
Still, we have to decide.

Maybe he nudged us these last 56 years
no less than when he was alive,
because love and justice don't die,
the dream doesn't disappear,
the march doesn't stop.

The trouble with heroes is that we wait for them.
Yet what he was saying the whole time was
“You can do this. We all do it together.
Don't wait for me, or the next one.
We are all marching.”

We march against those whose tools
are violence, hate and poverty.
We march to block the streets of habits, even our own.
We march against our fears,
singing, always singing.

Martin is still calling, still marching.
And something in us
even without our knowing,
is singing, still singing.

 

Steve Garnass-Holmes, unfoldinglight.net January 12, 2023